Day 34: Fraser Island

It was too cold to get up early and we enjoyed a sleep in and another late start which included bacon and eggs for brekky. We saw a dingo wander through the park looking for his breakfast too. The kookaburras were out and came quite close to our camp looking for scraps, but of course there are no scraps as you are not allowed to feed any animals on Fraser Island.

We headed south to Woralie Road, then to knife blade sand blow, where we walked up to the lookout and saw the massive sand dune. Here we noticed the scribbly gums, which are huge curious gum trees, with scribbly markings on the bark.

We continued on to Lake Allom and saw a lace monitor (huge lizardy thing), yellow robins in the picnic ground and turtles in the lake. The drive through the rainforest was spectacular - the kauri trees were huge, up to 2 metres across at the base, and the satinay trees were 3 metres across at the base.

After all this, we headed back towards Eli Creek and met up with John and Helen, who we met on the first day when we got off the barge. They have set up camp along the beach and were fishing for tailor – it was nice to catch up with them and we have enjoyed the company of many interesting people on our travels. There are many freshwater creeks on Fraser Island, and Eli Creek is the largest, pouring 4 million litres of fresh water into the ocean per hour. Eli Creek can be a big challenge to cross at high tide. There is a boardwalk along the edge of the creek, and it seems to be the place to jump on a LILO and float along the creek to the ocean. It was a bit cold for swimming for us today (although there were plenty of people swimming). We enjoyed a paddle along the creek to the ocean where we these fish called jungle perch, very rare and endangered and scientists don't understand how they got to be here, and how they survive in these conditions.

This is the Eli Creek crossing at high tide.
As we headed back to camp and drove past John and Helen’s camp, Helen came running out to offer us some fish. ‘You can't go home from Fraser Island without trying the local fish!’ she said, and so we had the fish (tailor) for tea and it was delicious.

Helen loves sunsets and we parked on the beach to watch the sunset, and it was Helen’s turn to drive back to camp. The sunset was spectacular, but Helen got bogged in the sand on the exit road to the camping ground. It was a good place to get bogged and luckily, three car load of back packers were behind us, and there were soon 12 people trying to push us out. that didn't work, so a quick snatch backwards and we were soon on our way. So far, Helen is the only person to get the car bogged and it is a badge I wear with pride!